Labour MPs have launched a significant rebellion against the government’s benefit cuts with an amendment that could kill its welfare bill, spearheaded by senior select committee chairs. The amendment – which has been signed by 108 MPs – declines to pass the government’s welfare changes and calls for a pause, including for further consultation and for support to be in place before any further cuts are made.
The Guardian understands the amendment has been led by the Treasury select committee chair, Meg Hillier, and a number of other committee chairs. It has also been signed by former cabinet minister Louise Haigh and Vicky Foxcroft, who quit as a Labour whip last week. They claim the amendment, to be published on Tuesday, is not intended to wreck the welfare bill but as many Labour MPs are uneasy about the government’s plans that could be the eventual outcome.
“We all want the Labour government to succeed in getting people back into work and supporting those who can’t. We don’t want to defeat the government but we want the government to think again,” Hillier told the Guardian. “We are being asked to vote before consultation with disabled people and before impact assessments.”
Ministers have argued that dropping, or even watering down, the welfare plans could leave a multibillion-pound black hole in Rachel Reeves’s attempts to balance the country’s books. But Hillier said: “We recognise that the financial situation is difficult. As the chancellor says governing is about choices. We don’t disagree that there is a need to reform welfare but it’s hard to deliver the proposed improvements in the proposed timescale. And disabled people must be protected.”
The amendment would need to be selected by the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, and gain the support of opposition parties to pass, and there is no guarantee of either. But the symbolism of so many MPs signing the amendment would make taking the bill forward extremely problematic for Keir Starmer. The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, has addressed a private meeting of MPs at which she told them there was “no route to social justice based on greater benefit spending alone”.
Some frontbenchers are believed to be considering their positions ahead of next Tuesday’s vote on cuts to personal independence payments and changes to the health-related element of universal credit. Cabinet ministers, including the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, have been making the public case to angry MPs to back the changes. At least 170 MPs have expressed concerns about the bill in public interventions and private letters to party whips.
